The Orchard
at Sage Hen Farm:
Apple Trees

At Sage Hen Farm
in Lodi, NY, we have a young orchard, several older fruit
trees planted by a previous owner, and remnants from a much older apple
orchard now part of a mixed deciduous woods. The fruit charts on this
site list and describe more than 100
trees, including apples, cherries, pears, peaches, plums,
and apricots.
However, our orchard is not large. For most varieties, we only have one
tree. Among our apple trees, we have concentrated on cold hardy
varieties and varieties venerated by past generations. We have red,
yellow, and red/yellow/orange apples. Our one green apple, Rhode Island
Greening, has a lot of red striping on it. Some of our
favorite apples are the russets, with their golden or greenish brown,
leathery-looking coats -- earthy as they look, they are among the best
and most complex flavored apples we grow.

Elsewhere on this site are a page about my grandpap's
apple orchardand a page oflinks to
other apple resources available online. Below the table is a key to
the sources used for ratings of the apples.

Merits:
Tree: very hardy (ironclad, to z2); early bearer; heavy cropper of
large
fruit; bears fruits
uniform in size & shape; fruits hang well on tree; requires little
pruning. Fruit: prized for early season cooking and sauce.

Merit or
fault?: Tree: supposed to be an early bearer, but we have not found
that to be true; naturally large,
spreading; productive or not very productive
(reports
vary); ripens over several weeks; partial tip
bearer (pruning challenge) . Fruit: subject to
sweet water core
[provides special burst of flavor, but leads to decay at core].

Faults: Fruit:
not favored for fresh eating; several apple
taste tests have echoed the comment "tart without much complexity."

Ratings: AA: [no stars]; Jacobsen.

Special:
Mott's valued it enough to negotiate with Cornell for exclusive rights
to it, I think for the purpose of developing apple slices or chips as a
new snack food. As the new name and increased availability in 2009
indicates, the deal was not completed.

Merits:
Tree: low cost of production ; crops heavily regularly ; resistant
to powdery mildew . Fruit: has become a new
standard for sweet fresh eating apples; holds its shape when cooked.

Faults:
Tree: very susceptible to scab; requires much thinning for good sized
fruit;
brittle wood. Fruit: turns mealy when over ripe; too bland when cooked;
too bland for good cider; not a good keeper.

Ratings:
A21: vg/b; AA: [no stars]; BBG; Jacobsen; Y

Special:
a new standard for sweet apples, but
already seeing a backlash. We discovered only at the first harvest that
the red sport Brookfield is less flavorful than the original.

Honeycrisp (thought to be Macoun X Honeygold, but may actually be Keepsake, open pollinated)
Minn.
1991

Special:
in a Danish five-year study, organically
grown Holsteiner Cox was the only variety of 14
that combined high yield, good fruit size and good eating quality with
low susceptibility to disease. Ours died in 2014, and we hope to
replace.

Special:
King of the Pippins may be the name of several unrelated apples. It may
or may not be identical to the Clarke Pearmain grown at Monticello. The
English Reine de Reinettes (King of the Pippins) may be the same as or
different from a Dutch Reine des Reinettes (Queen of the Pippins). The
King of the Pippins also known as Golden Winter Pearmain may or may not
be the same apple as the King of the Pippins currently being
propogated. There is further speculation that Reinette is a pun on
Rainette, or little frog, because of those apples' thick, spotted
skins, or derived from "renatus" or renewed, meaning grafted, not grown
from seed.

Jonagold
(was NY 43013-1)
(Jonathan x Golden Delicious)
NY
1968

large

classic
apple shape

rich, on the sweet side of sweet-tart

yellow with red stripes;
red may or may not be prominent;
tender skinned yellowish-white

Special:
finished first among "The World's Best Commercial Dessert Apples," in a
poll of 19 apple experts in 1989. Coming to prominence in Europe before
North America, it has become a new standard for
fresh eating.

Special: In his Report of the Pomologist
to the US Commissioner of Agriculture, 1888, Henry E. Van Deman stated,
"If I should be asked to select the choicest early autumn apple
known to me, I would say the Jefferies."

Merits:
Tree: grows well in many different soils; bears fruits uniform in shape
and size; very productive. Fruit: praised for its wonderful,
distinctive aroma; highly aromatic; prized for fresh eating and
cooking; does not bruise
easily; long
keeping for a fall apple .

Special:
First grown by the Rambo family that originated in New Sweden. If grown
from seed brought over from Sweden in 1630, could rival the Roxbury
Russet for the title "oldest American" variety; favorite apple of
Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley, who wrote an ode to the Rambo and
mentioned it by name in four other poems. I n Varieties
of Apples in Ohio (1915), "little
old-fashioned Rambo" was said to have been "found in almost every old
orchard in Ohio." Patrick Berry in 1857 wrote that the Rambo was
"popular over a greater extent of the country than anhy other variety."
Falsely claimed to be
favorite apple of Johnny Appleseed; John Chapman, for religious
reasons, shunned all grafted varieties.

Special:
has developed a cult following in the northeast. Pronounce the name as
you like -- I've heard it both McCowan and McCoon by authorities with
Cornell-Geneva connections (where it was developed)

King
of Tompkins County
(King, Tompkins King)
(parentage unknown)
NY
before 1800

Faults:
Tree: susceptible to apple scab; early blooming
subjects it to late frosts. Fruit: variable skin coloring; red does
not always develop well;
flavor
described as too mild in some taste tests; can go mealy.

Merits:
Tree: reliably heavy cropper; bears fruits uniform in shape and large
size; long lived; resistant to scab. Fruit: very juicy; aromatic; keeps
well even in less than ideal
conditions (except for some scalding).

Special:
discovered in the town of Roxbury in mid-17th century, it may be the
oldest named American variety. It has better documentation to the claim
than does the Rambo. Once fifth leading apple
variety grown in New
York State.

Golden
Russet
(possibly
English Russet seedling)
NY
before 1750

medium to largeclassic
apple shape

sprightly, sweet,
complex

yellow russet; rough,
tough, thick skinned

cream

firm, coarse-grained, moderately juicy

Fresh eating,
culinary, cider

Oct. 1-12

Merits: Tree: annual;
heavy cropper; some resistance to
scab and cedar apple rust; bears fruit of uniform large size; fruits
tolerate fall frosts and mild freezes. Fruit: does not bruise easily;
excellent
keeper; highly aromatic; prized
as one of few varieties recommended for unblended cider; high in
sugar and Vitamin C.

Faults:
Tree: tip bearer; since blooms early but requires long season, can be
challenged by frost in both spring & fall.
Fruit: not pretty; quickly browning flesh.

Faults:
Tree: susceptible to cedar-apple rust &scab. Fruit: subject to
cracking
& russeting; for a late ripening variety, it does not keep well.

Merit
or fault: Tree: heavy cropper, but thinning required for good sized
fruit and to prevent biennial bearing. Fruit: cracking common in first
years of harvest; flavor best after fruit ripens over several weeks;
subject to sweet water core [provides special burst of flavor, but lead
to decay at core].

Merit or
fault?: Tree: varies much in different seasons and in
different localities -- although listed as very
productive, some trees can be shy. Fruit: can range from "one
of the best apples of its season" to "decidedly
inferior." -- Beach

Merits:
Tree: bears fruit of uniform size; once among top ten leading apple
varieties grown in New York State. Fruit: unexcelled in rich, spicy,
exceedingly high flavor; called equally good
for dessert or cooking; attractive in shape
& color; does not
bruise easily; non-browning flesh

Merits:
Tree: heavy cropper; long lived; grows well on a variety of soils;
bears fruit of uniform large size; once leading apple variety grown in
New York & other northern states. Fruit:
very aromatic; excellent keeper; does not
bruise easily; attractive in shape & color; prized for quality for
multiple purposes; revered for excellence as cider base.

Faults:
Tree: slow to bear; more
strictly biennial than most other varieties; triploid (does
not pollinate); below average for Northern tree in hardiness; subject
to winter damage; thinning advised to avoid limb breakage; susceptible
to scab & powdery mildew .

Merits:
Tree: heavy cropper; naturally spreading; resistant to scab and cedar
apple rust, very
resistant to
fireblight ; late blooming protects it from late
frosts. Fruit: very aromatic; does not bruise
easily; prized
for larger size and
sweeter flavor, but other good qualities of Winesap;
excellent keeper.

Merits:
Tree: heavy cropper, if tends toward biennial; fruits hang on trees for
long time; late
blooming protects it from late frosts. Fruit:
does not bruise easily; prized for its clear juice in cider making;
excellent keeper.

Special:
although mamy accounts claim Dorchester, Massacusetts, or Rhode Island
as the
place of origin (before 1800), New York State has two claims, as well.
Jon Tallman places the origin to his ancestor Darius Tallman, whodeveloped
it around 1820 in his orchard near the Erie Canal in Perinton, NY, near
Rochester. C. S. Wilson, in his 1905 thesis about apples of New
York State, writes that Thomas Tallman, who owned land near Geneva, NY,
in about 1800 grew the Tallman Sweet after planting seeds found in an old Indian orchard that
survived the destruction of General Sullivan during his raid through
the Finger Lakes in the Revolutionary War. Our tree died in 2013.

mottled red and purple
red over yellow, some russeting at top ;
thick, tough skinned

white tinged with yellow

very firm, moderately
coarse-grained,
juicy.

Fresh eating,
culinary, cider

not yet fruiting

Merits:
Tree: very hardy for a "Southern" tree; early bearer; late blooming protects it
from late frosts ; r resistant
to
scab; reliable bearer, even if somewhat biennial . Fruit: very
aromatic;
very good keeper.

Ratings: Bull09: vg_ [ a
regional favorite that did not receive national attention; it's not
even
in Ragan.]; Burford*; F&T: H (0 regions);
Gould: of
merit, but largely
unknown.

Special:
who cares about the purported favorites of Tom Jefferson? -- this was
the favorite apple of Doc Watson.

NOTES

Fruit Shape:
Finding the differences among terms such as obovate, oblong, oblong,
ovate, and oblate confusing, I have opted to simplify descriptions of
shapes. Most apples have a "classic apple shape," which is often
written as roundish-ovate or round-conical. Those apples are as
tall as they are wide or slightly
taller than it is wide, with some tapering toward the bottom.

Flavor:
The
old term for sweet-tart was sub-acid, and a well-balanced sub-acid
apple was much prized. As tastes and expectations have changed, more
recently developed apples tend toward the sweeter side of the scale.
Astringency can make an apple "inedible" or enhance its flavor with a
special zest. It has been a prefered
quality in hard cider. On the scale of how much flavor an apple has,
the
varieties range from mild to sprightly or rich to intense. The best
flavored apples also have a complex quality that some might call spicy
or somehow special. A few have a distinctive flavor and aroma that make
them stand out, but not always for the best. Westfield Seek-No-Further,
for example, is highly prized by some, but by others is nicknamed
"Westfield Eat-No-Further." My wife can recognize a slight astringency
in it, but I can't. What is wonderful about taste tests with a group of
people is the wide range of preferences. Sweeter apples usually win,
but many folks rate sweet apples low. Kidd's Orange and Jonagold
received the most 10s in our 2014 apple taste test, but neither
finished on top. The leading complaint from those who didn't like
them was that they were too sweet and didn't have enough apple flavor.

Tree Shape and Size:
The shape of the tree will vary. If upright, new limbs will shoot
straight upward. They can be a challenge for pruning and shaping.
Spreading trees are those with limbs that naturally grow at angles, and
if the limbs grow below horizontal, they are deemed drooping. Roundish
trees are those that have a mix of limb growth, but can also become
bushy, so they can also be a challenge for pruning.

Blossom and Harvest Dates:
Harvest
dates are based on averages at our orchard. In the case of trees that
have not yet fruited, harvest order is
estimated. Fortunately for us, we live about half an hour from the
Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, which is a good
reference point. Blossom dates are not listed except where very late
blossoming varieties are noted in the merit section for helping avoid
damage of late frosts. Most early harvested varieties are also early
blossoming, and most varieties will blossom for 9 to 12 days so even
earliest blossoming varieties will overlap with all but the latest
blossoming varieties.

New York Sources: AoNY = S. A. Beach, Apples of New York,
1905, Volume I
and Volume II;
NY1907 = U.P. Hedrick, N.O. Booth, and O.M. Taylor. "Varieties of
Apples for New York" in "Report of the Horticultural Department" in
25th Annual Report of the Board of Control of the New York
Agricultural Experiment Station, 1907 [rating is for tthe Central
Lakes district, except where note. **=Well Recommended; *=Recommended;
+=Worthy of Trial; _=Undesirable
for region. Quality ratings were also provided, but they repeated
Beach.]; NY1914
= Another update, this one by F. H. Hall in "The Best Apples for New
York State," found in the 32d Annual report of the Board of Control of
the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1914 [varieties rated
reduced to 98 of special value or merit in New York State, quality
ratings changed slightly, so are included, and after the slash,
recommendations for Central Lakes which had also been altered. NY1916:
numerical ranking of leading commercial varieties for Western New York,
with recommendation by S. A. Beach to commercial orchardists not to go
outside the list except for local and special markets (l/sp).

Other sources:A21 = W. Manhart, Apples for the Twenty
First Century, 1995; AA = Adam's Apples, where apples
are rated from no stars to three stars "based on their qualities eaten
out of hand"; AFC = John Jacob Thomas. The American
Fruit Culturist,
1875, with numbers representing number of states where the variety
thrives/thrives well, with list of primary states following
[WNY=Western New York; IN+=northern IN, IL, OH &IN-=southern IN,
IL, OH] (comments); AP = J. A. Warder, American
pomology.
Apples, 1867. Baker = Charles Baker, Practical and
scientific fruit culture
Lee and Shepard, 1866 [Rated * or ** for suitability {only Western NY
included here} or _ for not rated; and listed among the best 6, 12, or
20 trees for particular states {or at least best 20 if no # listed}; Beecher
= comments from Henry Ward Beecher in his Pleasant Talk
about Fruits,
Flowers and Farming; BBG=Brooklyn
Botanical Gardens' The Best Apples To Buy And Grow, 2005; BC
= Catalog of Fruit
Trees Under Test at the Experimental Farm at
Agassiz, British Columbia, 1900; B-H = J. L.
Budd,
assisted by Niels Ebbesen Hansen [who prepared the chapter on apples], American
Horticultural Manual, Volume II: Systematic
Pomology, 1903; Joseph Lancaster Budd; Browning =
included in the chapter "Twenty or So Prize Apples" from Frank
Browning's Apples, 1999; BUF = Rated "first-rate at
the Pomological Convention at Buffalo, 1848' Bull91
= "Catalog of
Fruits Recommended for Cultivation; Division I: Fruits
Mainly Adapted to Northern Localities; Section 1: Apples," U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Division of Pomology. Bulletin, 1891
[Ratings are from 1 (very poor) to 10 (best); rating after / indicates
notation for District No. 2 that includes New York's Finger Lakes (NR
either not reported or not recommended; * known to succeed; ** highly
successful; + promising]; Bull97 & Bull97:
revisions were made in 1897 and
1899, but most were slight, so only when there were significant changes
are they noted; Bull09 = when it was revised in 1909, the
more
traditional good, very good, and best ratings replaced the numerical
system; Burford = Included in Tom Burford's Apples
of North America, 192 Exceptional Varieties [* indicates in his
list of Top 20 fresh-eating apples, even though some were not included
in his book]; Can
= Linus Woolverton. The Canadian
Apple Grower's Guide, 1910. Cole = S. W.
Cole,The
American Fruit Book, 1849; CG= R.J.
Barnett. "Quality in Apples," Country Gentleman, November 10, 1917
[Ratings dessert quality-50/cooking quality-25/keeping
quality-25/total-100; D = Andrew Jackson Downing
and
Samuel Downing. The
Fruits and Fruit-trees of America
[ratings added by Samuel Downing in the 1865 revised edition]; Eliott
= F. R.
Eliott, Elliott's
Fruit Book, 1858; FB113 = US Department of
Agriculture.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 113: The Apple
and How to Grow It, by G.B, Brackett. GPO: 1909 (NE=recommended for
the district that includes New England, New York, and Pennsylvania; NE*
recommended for commercial as well as family orchard; &=recommended
for another part of the country); FB208 = US Department of
Agriculture.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 208: Varieties of
Fruits Recommended for Planting,
compiled by W.H. Ragan. GPO: 1904. [Ratings (HR, highly recommended, R,
recommended, and T, recommended for trial; D=Dessert (desirable for
eating in a fresh or uncooked state), K=Kitchen (has good cooking
qualities), M=Market (is good bearer, has fine appearance, possesses
firmness and keeping quality, C=cider) are for District 2: Nova Scotia,
most of New England and NY, northern NJ, PA, OH, & IN, and the
lower peninsula of Michigan; FB1001 = US Department of
Agriculture.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 1001 (1920): Varieties of
Fruits Suggested for Planting
in 14 different districts of the US(D1 through D14), including District
1 (colder portions of New England and New York), District 2 (including
the Finger Lakes), and District 3 (including Shenandoah Valley and
Appalachian Mountains); F&T= John Clifford Folger &
Samuel Mable Thomson. The
commercial apple industry of North America, 1921. [* among top
12 commercial country wide (80% of all apples); ^ declining in
commercial importance; $ most marketable, fetching best prices; H good
for home use as well] Gould = H.P. Gould. "Some Comment on
Important Apple Varieties," in Annual Report of the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture, 1910; Hayes = Grown by Rutherford B
Hayes at his Spiegel Grove estate after he left the Whitehouse; Hedrick
= U. P. Hedrick. Cyclopedia
of Hardy Fruit. Macmillan, 1922; Hooper = E.
J. Hooper. Hooper's
Western Fruit Book: (1857); HSL = A Catalogue of
the Fruits Cultivated in the Garden of the Horticultural Society of
London, 1831; Jacobsen = Included in Rowan Jacobsen's Apples
of Uncommon Character, 2014; Keil=
J.B. Keil. "Apples from a Consumer's Standpoint." Ohio State
Horticultural Society Annual Report ,1917 (Dessert apples were his own
personal preference. Cooking apples were selected from cooking tests
done at the station​); Lear
= flavor
rating from 1-10 by O.H. Lear, Missouri orchardist, as recorded in
James Fitz, Southern
Apple and Peach Culturist, 1872; Lewelling =
included among the fruit trees brought from Iowa to Oregon by covered
wagon in 1847 by Henderson Lewelling to establish the first commercial
orchard in the Pacific Northwest; Lowther = Encyclopedia of
practical horticulture,
by Granville Lowther and William Worthington, 1914 [noting that good
was the lowest rating and best was more generously bestowed than
elsewhere]; ME94 = "Catalog of Maine
Fruits: Apples," Annual Report of the Maine Experimental Station,
1894; ME08 = W. M. Munson, "Preliminary Notes
on the Seedling Apples of Maine," Annual Report of the Maine
Experimental Station,
1908 [rating after / indicates notation for southern Maine, except
where noted: * recommended; ** highly recommended, _ not recommended; MI79
= "Fruit
Catalogue of 1879," in Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of
the State Pomological Society of Michigan, 1879; MI90
= Fruit List,
from Fruit List and Apple Scab,
by L.R. Taft, Michigan State Board of Agriculture, 1890 [quality,
followed by numerical ranking for dessert, cooking, market]; NE1-NE24
= among top two dozen varieties best-suited to the
meridian of New England, ranked according to merit b Samual Walker,
president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in Hovey's
Magazine, vol 25, 1849; NW=N.E.
Hanson, A Study of Northwest Apples, South Dakota
Agricultural College, 1902. Ont
= Catalogue of Fruits--Apples; for Use of Judges at Exhibitions, in
Ontario Legislative Assembly, Sessionaly Papers, Volume 24, 1892 [the
four ratings are for Quality:Dessert/Quality:Cooking/Home Market
Value:/Foreign Market Value]; Phillips = included in a list of recommended heirloom varieties in The Holistic
Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way (2012) by
Michael Phillips; Potter = included among
five favorite apples named by British pomologist J.M.S. Potter
(director of Brogdale Experimental Horticulture Station and in charge
of the National Fruit Collections from 1936 to 1972); Prince
= iincluded in Prince's
Annual Catalogue of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, 1841;Ragan
= Nomenclature
of the Apple: a catalogue of the known varieties referred to in
American publications from 1804 to 1904, compiled by W. H. Ragan,
1905; Scott = Scott's Orchardist: Or Catalogue of Fruits Cultivated at
Merriott, Somerset, 1873 [most every tree received a 1 rating, but
Scott was in the business of selling trees. Included in part to show
what American varieties he had imported to England]; UIll
= University of Illinois Agricultural
Experiment Station, Varieties of
Apples (Bulletin #45), 1896; Waugh = Frank Albert
Waugh. The
American apple orchard: a sketch of the practice of apple in North
America at the beginning of the twentieth century, 1908; Way
= on Roger Way's Top 20 list from 1966 [Way was Cornell's leading apple
expertin the mid-20th Century; Wilkinson
= A. E. Wilkinson, The Apple: A
Practical Treatise,
1915 (* indicates that the variety was included among the list of the
36 best for the farm or commercial orchard for New England or New
York); Unimpeachable = Listed as "unimpeachable" for
Western New York by P. Barry in The Fruit
Garden, 1857; Y = selection in Roger
Yepsen's book Apples, 1994.

This page written and maintained by John R. Henderson (
orchard @ sagehenfarmlodi.com ).
Last modified: October 15, 2014
URL: http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/ourapples.html
Background image of cidering by Laura Low.